Last night I went to the movie theater, and I briefly tweeted out a picture of me wearing my VFF‘s there. I also commented on how people around me were staring and whispering about my “freaky toe shoes” – It’s true, I can’t go anywhere around town without receiving at least one comment. Don’t get me wrong though, I love the attention.

One of my followers then replied to me with this comment and question:

@theamberness: @tarynrom that #*$! is weird. Do you run in those? What’s the purpose?

The other day someone posted a blog in which they answered questions to Paleo in 140 characters or less. I thought their responses were great, and that the idea in general was a creative idea. I think with the topic of Vibram’s and being barefoot, I need a little bit more of an explanation than 140 characters!

Do I run in them?

Yes, I run in them. However, I haven’t ran any long distances in them yet as it’s been too cold outside living in Saskatchewan.  I am not much of a long distance runner as it is, but this summer I intend on running anywhere from 5km to 10km. During the summer and those runs, I will blog about my experiences about trying to become a LD runner, especially barefoot (or, semi-barefoot.. in Vibram’s).

I also do a lot more than just run in them. I workout in them – they provide a great base for my CrossFit workouts. Olympic lifting is most efficient in your most natural state – barefoot. Being barefoot doesn’t alter the way your anatomy lines up when you’re preparing for a lift – think about it. If i put on a Nike running shoe, that has a soft heel of about 2″ thick, think of how that heel lift will alter the way my hips are set up, and all down and up the kinetic chain. My muscle length and tension are altered, the curve in my lumbar spine is altered and thus having implications of it’s own. When you stand there barefoot and ready to lift this weight above your head, your muscles are at the length & tension they should be at, and your bones are all in their natural positions – which may not be correct as it is, but that’s a story for another day.

Anything you can do in shoes, I do in my VFF’s. I go for groceries in them. I wear them to work – which has it’s own conflicts being that I work in a physiotherapy clinic (I like to think it just brings excitement into my day arguing with the other physio’s about why BF is so great). I wear them to class. I wear them when I drive. Anything you can do in shoes or in your bare feet, I can do in my VFF’s.

What is the purpose?

One of the most harped on benefits of being barefoot, is the benefit of reducing injury. Research about barefoot running and it’s implications is scarce, but is growing as the days and nights turn. Dan Lieberman conducted a great study on barefoot and running. This is a video that sums up his research, and it’s quite educational:

He also has a few studies out about the difference between the foot strikes of a barefoot runner and a shod (shoe) runner. Birthday Shoes – a great VFF and barefoot running source – has a great list of all the reading material you could want based around Lieberman’s studies. You can find it here. So if you’re still wondering, take a gallavant through that list if you would like some hard science to back me up.

Anyways, back to reducing injury. I don’t really have to get into the biomechanics of it all, but this is the simplest way I have come to be able to explain it. Basically, we’re born barefoot – keep that in the back of your mind. From day 1, all the way to your adult life right now, you’ve been wearing shoes – right from day 1. You never gave your little baby self a chance to experience barefoot life outside the carpeted house. Automatically your body adjusts to whatever position your shoes are putting you in. Take for example, that 2″ heel on your running shoes that I briefly touched upon earlier. As I said before, it adjusts the whole way up the kinetic chain – the way your pelvis sits (rotated), alters the way your muscles sit (lengthened, unnecessary tension, etc.) which then has it’s own problems – altered mechanics cause the body to adapt. Sometimes the body just won’t adapt and thus you get injury.

The reason I got interested in this all is because for all my life as an athlete, I was plagued with shin splints. Now, I’ve posted about this before, but shin splints have a number of causes – they can start from the foot or start from the lower back and anywhere in between. I will just give some history on why I think I had shin splints. Being a basketball player, Nike Shox were a really huge shoe when I played. The cushioning of the “shocks” under the heel was supposed to give added comfort. Now as you can see with this picture, that adds a lot to the heel, and thus brings me back to my previous explanation. My pelvis was probably anterior rotated (which is the case in a majority of the population anyways, as we all suck in our “gut” and stick out our butt). An anterior rotated pelvis comes with it’s own problems: elongated and weak abdominals and hamstrings, short and tight lower back muscles and hip flexors. The knee joints are slightly hyperextended, and ankle joints are slightly plantar flexed. More PF’ed ankles mean harder working dorsiflexors (anterior tibialis – the main site of my shin splint pain). (Referenced from: Kendall, McCreary, Provance, Rodgers, Romani. (2005). Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain)

So, that’s just my thought on why I had shin splints, and my transition to going barefoot… or semi barefoot in my VFF’s.

Obviously I don’t play basketball in them, and I chose to suck up the shin splint pain I’m endured with while I play the few times a week that I do right now. But, that’s another thing. The shin splint pain will return once I put shoes back on, and disappears when I’m barefoot or in my VFF’s. Go figure.

Don’t they hurt the soles of your feet?

At first, it was a little weird to get used to. The feeling of the tiled floors throughout the university hallways was weird. Walking over floor mats was even more weird. But being barefoot has your body alter the way it moves in order to protect itself, and you notice that right away as soon as you put them on. Take for example, you are inside the house and you realize you left something in the car on the driveway. You dash out the front door to the car in your bare feet. You wouldn’t stomp on your bare feet on the cement driveway would you? Why would this be any different if you have a minimal rubber sole covering the bottom of your foot?

Your body alters the way it moves when you’re bare feet. Your knees and ankles stay underneath your pelvis. You go from a heel strike to a forefoot/midfoot strike. This gives the foot and surrounding musculature more of a chance to disperse the incoming forces. You lighten your step. Even in running. If you watch a shod runner, you can see them stomping, and all the forces going right up to their ankles, knees, and hip joints. When you watch a BF runner, they’re much more quiet and softer. I find it extremely hard to watch someone running in shoes now that has no mechanics. All the possible injuries just flow through my mind and it actually makes me cringe. I feel sorry for those people, because they don’t even know.

So, no. They don’t hurt the soles of my feet. If anything, my feet have become stronger. All the intrinsic muscles have learned their purpose. My ankle proprioception (how the joint knows where it is in space) has increased so much, after being a basketball player with many sprained ankles throughout my lifetime – this is incredibly beneficial to me. One of the best days was a day I walked through a parking lot that had ice frozen in spots. Walking over the ice let me realize my ankles were working to keep me stable. Thus, they were getting stronger and my proprioception was increasing on its own.

Can you run outside in Saskatchewan in them?

That’s one thing I never conquered. I just can’t bare to put myself outside when it’s -20C on a good day, and yet go for a run on top of that. However, with that being said, I have worn them out in that weather to go shopping or what not. Yes, at times I was a little cold, and although you can purchase Injinji toe socks that are made specifically for VFF’s, I don’t own a pair but suppose those would help with the cold factor.

Like I said, when spring comes, and Regina decides to clear the Wascana Lake sidewalks a little better, I’ll make my way out there. I’m just too chicken right now, I’ll admit it.

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So, in conclusion, purchasing a pair of VFF’s has been one of the most educational, and lifestyle changing experiences I have encountered yet. I say educational changing just because I am immersed in the world of Athletic Therapy where heel striking is the gold standard still. So to change everything I learned to accept the theories based around barefoot running, it was quite exciting to me. I enjoy the days passing without any shin pain, to an extended degree. I love how I feel when I lift – I feel so much more in tune with the ground and when I perform the lift I feel I’m more technically sound. And, as an added benefit, I love the attention they bring. The staring, whispering, and comments never get old. I’m sure they’ll be even better when I return to my small Ukrainian hometown for the summer.

Leave me some comments if you have any further questions, or if you’ve had a life changing experience with your VFF’s. I’m interested to see the different experiences everyone has had!

You might also want to read:

1. Vibram FiveFingers are “not for everyone.”
2. Running in Vibram FiveFingers – My Transitioning
3. My Body Is My Own Experiment
4. A Quick Response to Shin Splints
5. A Love Story: The Bikila’s